Tether’s abandoned Bitcoin mining venture in Uruguay—where an ex-contractor calculated expenditures hit approximately $120 million across a pair of locations—is looming over the stablecoin issuer’s more modest renewable-energy pilot in Brazil.
As reported by Reuters, the Uruguay initiative fell apart following a dispute between Tether’s local subsidiary, Microfin, and the state-run utility UTE regarding the conditions governing power consumption. Microfin interpreted its agreed-upon power allocation as a floor that could be scaled up, whereas UTE viewed it as a ceiling.
By late 2024, conflict had broken out between the parties. Microfin ceased settling its electricity invoices in May 2025, informed UTE the subsequent month of its intention to cancel the agreements, and subsequently neglected to finalize renegotiated terms. Consequently, UTE cut power to the facilities on July 25.
By November, the USDT issuer informed labor officials that it was shutting down activities and dismissing the majority of its personnel. Microfin cleared its remaining debt to UTE in December.
A former contractor assessed that Tether invested roughly $60 million at each of the two locations within Uruguay’s Florida department. This roughly $120 million sum represents an expenditure estimate rather than an official loss figure reported by Tether.
This failure stands in stark contrast to Tether’s 2023 rollout of the project, during which the firm highlighted Uruguay’s green energy generation and power grid dependability as key benefits for mining Bitcoin.
This background directly applies to Tether’s subsequent South American endeavor, which partners with Adecoagro, a prominent South American agricultural and clean energy producer.
Delegates from Adecoagro toured Tether’s Uruguay mining center in February 2025 while both entities investigated powering cryptocurrency mining with renewable energy. Just five months afterward, the firms revealed a memorandum of understanding for a 230 MW pilot initiative in Brazil.
At the same time, this new initiative is substantially scaled down. Adecoagro indicated that the pilot will consume approximately 10 megawatts of excess renewable energy that otherwise would have been offloaded onto the spot market.
The figure exceeding 230 MW mentioned in the corporate press release points to Adecoagro’s total green energy production potential throughout South America, rather than electricity dedicated specifically to Bitcoin mining.
Available disclosures do not indicate that Tether altered the design of the Brazilian undertaking due to the events in Uruguay, nor do they prove that the fresh venture is encountering comparable issues.
Nevertheless, these events position Brazil as the next proving ground for Tether’s regional mining approach, especially after the Uruguay experience demonstrated that simply having access to renewable energy does not guarantee a successful mining enterprise. Transparent energy guidelines, reliable capacity, and viable economics turned out to be equally critical.
